


Close Call

by BranHowe



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Adventuring Party, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Bard - Freeform, Healer, Knight, M/M, Party, beastman - Freeform, debriel, fantasy!au, magician
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-25 14:30:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18576397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BranHowe/pseuds/BranHowe
Summary: A small snapshot of life in an adventuring party.Created for the Round 3 of the Debriel Creations ChallengePrompt: Alternate Universes, Theme: Fantasy





	Close Call

“Play us a song, Gabe.”

Gabriel took some time to finish munching his piece of bread in silence before he downed it with a sip of wine. Cleaning his hands, he went for his lute sighing tiredly. 

It’s not that he was against the idea, it was just that everyone was beyond the concept of tiredness by then. The rest of the party calmly finishing their own meals while Gabriel adjusted the strings. 

Dean was already sharpening his blade, a previous encounter with a couple of orcs dulling it slightly meant that it was time for the stone. A painful task for someone with a currently half incapacitated arm that he still managed to do because he just couldn’t trust his baby to anyone else. Castiel was mixing some herbs in boiling water. A nourishing potion of some sorts that he was preparing for him to be in less pain while he recovered.

Just five more days and they would finally be at home, or the closest thing that the entire party could call home anyways. The place where Sam and Dean’s parents lived.

The journey through the cavernous path of Brelin’s Pass was supposedly going to be the quickest way back to the town of Cravenfall but a sudden occupation of a few goblins and orcs that came down from the North escaping the sharp cold winter of the ridges had turned it into a strenuous march. They had done really well for an outnumbered party of five but despite Castiel’s efforts they all held bruises and gashes and some of their clothes were a lost cause.

Sam had warded the camp with heavy misguiding spells, no one wanted to deal with anything anymore that day. Still, Dean was going to do the first lookout round and then pass the baton to Garth, his sense of smell had payed greatly throughout the whole endeavor. Dean was less prone to make fun of his pointy ‘doggy’ ears now. 

Strong fingers began to move over the instrument with a song that Dean only knew too well.

“Through the trail of the stars,  
I came to find your light.  
I ran along the rotten path  
Of silver vines and fire.  
Oh Sylfaen, Oh Sylfaen,  
Will you ever hear my prayer?  
Will you ever join us  
In our pain?  
Will you ever sit  
Besides our pyre?”

Gabriel’s smooth tenor voice drawled the notes of the song with a clear ring that made it the more nostalgic.

Dean stopped dragging the stone through his blade. He looked up towards the bard, falling into the enchantment of his voice and the deep honey of his eyes reflecting the fire of the camp, glowing like a spell. You could feel the pain of the verses cover your bones while the song pleaded to Sylfaen to forgive the humans that had aggrieved him and come back from the land of the High Elves to lead the attack of the now lost city of Arthalos against the hordes of evil.

It was a sad song but for Dean it was much more than that. It reminded him of the day he met the bard, listening to that song for the first time. That day he stood reclined against a wall for two hours until Gabriel finished his show and had collected his coins and approached him. Gabriel looked at him dazed when Dean stretched his hand towards him out of the blue with a killer smile.

“Dean Winchester. Please be my bard.”

Neither Sam nor Castiel had been overly fond of Gabriel at first, especially when they discovered he also had some quite sneaky skill sets that would remind more of a thief than a simple bard.

Gabriel had also not been really that happy when he found out that he had to share the gorgeous green eyed man’s time with a pair of stiffs like them but they all eventually grew on to each other.

Dean was taken away from his trance when Castiel softly shoved a wooden bowl on his hands. A sharp accusatory sight from his friend made Dean realize just how deep into Gabriel’s performance he had been. He blushed while taking the healer’s potion sipping on the not so bad tasting brew.

The stars were shining brightly now that the fire was more coal than logs. Gabriel resting against a rock, Cas and Sam sleeping one upon the other against the roots of a tree sharing a blanket, Garth almost on top of the both of them, curled up like a dog. Okay, maybe Dean would still make fun of him from time to time. He looked back for a second to ensure his friends were sleeping well while he turned towards the forest once more. 

He heard a rustle of leaves and felt Gabriel sit by his side on the trunk of the fallen tree. When Gabriel grunted while trying to find a position where his ass was not entirely smashed, Dean turned his head slightly towards him to acknowledge his presence. Up close, you could see the bags under his eyes and the slight trembling of his shoulders. His body was desperate for some rest but apparently the adrenaline of staying awake three days running through goblins had just barely stopped flooding.

Without a word he threw himself at Dean, who received him a bit astonished. Dean’s alarm went up the moment he felt Gabriel drown a sob.

“Gabe?”

“I thought I had lost you.”

Dean snickered. “Yeah, I don’t think anyone expected that bloodhound”

“He dragged you like a broken doll...”

“It’s a good thing your aim with the bow is as sharp as your voice.”

Gabriel rubbed his face against Dean’s shirt and looked upwards. Before Dean could say a thing Gabriel was already pulling him down and linking their lips in a desperate kiss. 

Gabriel had danced with Dean, flirting with him to no end with no result. He had eventually resigned himself to the idea that Dean had, in fact, been interested in him only as the bard of the group but after experiencing the ice cold sting of panic shiver throughout his guts at the idea of losing Dean forever he had made up his mind. He didn’t care if Dean got angry at him later. He had to convey all the things he held inside to the man.

This stirred Dean’s own repressed feelings for the bard. He had known it from the moment he had laid eyes upon him. He had know this was the man he wanted to spend the rest of his days with. But it had been way too difficult to show it when your party depended on you as the only wall to receive all the hits and defend the others. For some reason, most likely his training as knight, Dean had assumed that in order to protect everyone this impenetrable wall had to be extended to his owns feelings as well. 

Dean held Gabriel closer. The kiss was rough but oddly chaste. Lips joined together for a long time and only briefly pulling apart for some air. They finally pulled away only to join their foreheads, still roused by the elation of knowing each others feelings were reciprocated, smirking softly. Interlacing their hands.

“Let me take you to my parents once we get to Cravenfall.”

“I’ve been letting you take me wherever you go so far. I’m not stopping you now.”

In an hour or so, Dean would wake Garth up and go to sleep against the root of a tree just like his brother. 

In an hour or so, Gabriel would join him and cover the both of them with a blanket, just like Castiel.

In five more days they would finally be at home, or the closest thing that the entire party could call home anyways.


End file.
